Author(s): Käthe Schneider,Juliane Möhring, Uliana Proskunina
The entrepreneurial performance and success have been broadly studied in terms of Adult Education and Psychology. The concept of Ego Development has been often employed for the examination of these phenomena. At the same time, further research is needed in regard to women entrepreneurs in particular and national economic contexts. The complexity of the examined theoretical constructs does not allow for straightforward predictions in this direction. The current paper contributes to the outlined field with the examination of innovation orientation with reference to ego development of female business owners in Germany and Ireland. Using a sample for the target population in these two countries, we apply descriptive statistics, Chi- Square and Correlation analysis to examine multiple statistical relations between the target variables. Among others, we deliver the following key findings. The majority of the studied women entrepreneurs show the advanced levels of Ego Development, reaching its E5 (Self-Awareness) and E6 (Consciousness) stages. We also discover the national differences with this respect, showing higher development level for Irish participants than for German ones, also exceeding the managers’ level in the prominent literature to the topic. Similarly, the operationalization of innovation orientation through entrepreneurial orientation related to new ways of acting and solutions, as well as in the encouragement of other persons, is more strongly marked in Ireland than in Germany. In both countries, the support for this orientation is positively associated with the higher levels of Ego Development, namely Self-Awareness and Consciousness. The national differences are also reflected in the placement of the German sample on E5 (Self Awareness) level and the Irish one on E6 (Consciousness) stage. Additionally, we find the weak statistically significant correlation between the dimension and indicator of the discussed phenomenon in both countries. Nevertheless, when applying a comparative country-specific perspective, the conclusion upon the dimension and both indicators remains valid for Germany only. We have addressed the number of limitations and precautions when extrapolating the findings for the similar populations. The related socio-economic studies have been presented for the interpretation and application of the discovered psychological patterns.